UAE dismantles part of Eritrea base amid widespread condemnation: Report

A report says the United Arab Emirates has been dismantling parts of a military base it runs in Eritrea amid a widespread condemnation of its troubling role in the region.

Satellite photos from Planet Labs Inc., analyzed by the Associated Press, showed that the UAE began shipping off equipment and tearing down even newly built structures in its military base in the city of Assab, Eritrea.

“The Emiratis are paring back their strategic ambitions and are pulling out of places where they had presences,” Ryan Bohl, an analyst at the Texas-based private intelligence firm Stratfor said, adding “Having that hard-power deployment exposed them to more risk than the Emiratis are now willing to tolerate.”

The UAE poured millions of dollars into improving the Assab base, which lies only some 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Yemen where it is fighting as part of a Saudi-led coalition.

It built a port and expanded an airstrip in Assab beginning in September 2015, using the facility as “a base to ferry heavy weaponry and Sudanese troops into Yemen”, the report said.

The AP report comes as the United Arab Emirates’ expansionist policy and its involvement in conflicts in Libya and Yemen have cost the country billions of dollars, sparking condemnation from senior officials inside the emirates, amid the failure of the Emirati-backed militants in both countries.

UAE failed expansionism in Libya, Yemen costs billions of dollars: Report

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According to United Nations experts, Leclerc battle tanks, G6 self-propelled howitzers and BMP-3 amphibious fighting vehicles, which have been used in the war against Yemen, were stationed by the UAE at the airport. Attack helicopters, drones and other aircraft have also been seen on numerous runways.

Michael Knights, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy who has studied the Assab base, said the base provided medical help for militants fighting in Yemen by housing “one of the best field surgical hospitals anywhere in the Middle East,. 

The base was also used by the Emiratis for holding prisoners from Yemen.

The AP report said satellite pictures taken after the  decision by the UAE to withdraw its troops from Yemen, showed that it began dismantling parts of the Assab base.

Despite announcing its withdrawal from Yemen in 2019, reports have said that the UAE remains a party to the devastating war.

“In June 2019, around the time the Emiratis made their withdrawal announcement, workers apparently razed structures believed to be barracks alongside the port, the satellite images show. Workers gathered neat rows of materiel just north of the port, apparently waiting to be shipped off,” the AP said.

“In early January of this year, another photo showed what appeared to be vehicles and other equipment being loaded onto a waiting cargo ship. By February 5, the ship and that equipment were gone.”

“The deconstruction included newly built canopies along a new tarmac near the facilities’ runway as well… In the February 5 images, another set of canopies that analysts earlier linked to the drones being flown out of the base had been dismantled as well.”

The demolition of the drone hangars come after rebels in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in November alleged that their positions were attacked by Emirati drones from Assab.

The UN-backed government in Libya also said the UAE has flown weapons through Assab on its way there. According to UN experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions on the north African country, the UAE has repeatedly violated an arms embargo on war-torn Libya.

The AP report stressed that Emirati attack helicopters still have been seen at the base despite the dismantling work.

Last month, an American think tank decried the UAE's role in the region, saying it has contributed to humanitarian crises and instability in the Middle East.

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A US think tank says the United Arab Emirates has contributed to humanitarian crises and regional instability.

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